During the performance of a medical procedure, it is sometimes necessary, or otherwise desirable, to create a cavity within a bone to receive a medical device or create a passageway that can be used to navigate a medical device towards a point of treatment. For example, in orthopedic procedures, a cavity is sometimes created in a bone to receive a prosthetic component that is attached to the bone within the cavity using bone cement. Alternatively, if a passageway has been created to navigate a medical device towards a point of treatment, bone cement is sometimes used to close the cavity subsequent to completing the procedure.
Bone cement is generally introduced into a cavity using a conventional syringe such that it flows from the center of the cavity and radially outward to the cavity wall. While introducing the bone cement, the needle of the syringe is withdrawn at a continuous rate from the cavity such that the tip of the needle is at or near the meniscus of the cement that has already been introduced into the cavity. This provides a continuous and substantially uninterrupted flow of cement and is generally accomplished by manually withdrawing the needle from the cavity while simultaneously injecting the cement by depressing the plunger of the syringe. Manually withdrawing the needle from the cavity, however, has significant drawbacks. For example, it is sometimes difficult to visualize the bottom of the cavity and/or the meniscus of the bone cement as it is being introduced into the cavity due to the needle obstructing the view of the cavity and/or cement. Therefore, manual withdrawal of the needle requires an individual using the syringe to approximate the rate at which the syringe should be withdrawn from the cavity and the rate at which the plunger of the syringe should be depressed to introduce an appropriate amount of bone cement into the cavity.
Therefore, a need exists for improved controlled injection devices, systems, and methods for introducing a treatment material into a cavity.